BENGALURU: Founded in 1970 by Sri Lokesh, Sri CR Simha and Sri Sreenivas Kappanna, theatre group Nataranga has presented several historic plays in the city.
The group has staged Kakanakote, Tughlak, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Nammolagobba Najookayya among other plays. After a long gap, the third generation of Nataranga is back in the city with its new production Kanchuki based on Dr Chandrashekar Kambar's Singaravva Matthu Aramane.
City Express caught up with Divya Karanth, who has directed the play.
“My parents introduced me and my brother to books at a very young age. Say when I was five years old. The first novel stuck in my head was Singaravva Matthu Aramane by Kambar. I have read the novel more than 20 times,” she says. Divya is a disciple of TN Seetaram.
Initially, she had no plans to take up the story. “But when I got into theatre, I decided that this will be the first story if at all I direct a play,” she says.
Known for her quirky blogs, Divya is a well-known TV actor and theatre artist. The plot of the play revolves around love and betrayal. Divya confesses that she enjoys dealing with subjects entangled in complicated relationships. “Such stories amuse me. More than the palace, which is also a strong character in this story, the people living in the palace attracted me. The original story is about the palace and how it became legendary, but my stage adaption is about a servant who became legendary saving the palace,” she says.
The director feels emotionally connected to the story. “Maybe because I was connected with the story from childhood. The characters bother me. When I started writing the adaption they use to haunt me even in my sleep. I wanted to make each character right and the situation wrong. That was a tough job,” she says.
Divya was so involved in the characters and the story that when she enacted the piece in front of the actors, she broke down. Casting was the most difficult part of the process, she says.
“I didn't want to go wrong with casting. I called in some 200 artists for auditions,” she says.
Divya was very particular about getting dedicated actors. “This is because we needed to rehearse for two and a half months which needed lot of their time. And I was adamant that they have to be the best. Fortunately, I got everything I wanted in my actors,” she says.
The team has performed the play at Ravindra Kalakshetra, KH Kala Soudha, KEA Prabhath Rangamandira, Mumbai, Mysuru, Dharwad, and Manchikere among other places.
“So far the play has received lot of success and fame. We have selfie videos of Mandya Ramesh, Girija Lokesh and B Suresh appreciating the play. We are humbled by the response,” says Divya.
Catch the play on Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm at Ranga Shankara.